[JohnFromMaine]

To roughly quote Carl Sagan in his novel "Contact;" "If there isn't life out there it would be a terrible waste of space."

I do believe that there is definitely intelligent life on other planets in other solar systems. I also would not be at all surprised to learn that we are being "observed" remotely or even directly, just as we have done and do, both here on Earth and on the Moon and other planets, moons and asteroids. However, I also look back on many instances where explorers here on Earth have nearly destroyed indigenous peoples and cultures by direct contact by spreading disease and/or culture shock. Can you imagine what would happen to the energy industry if ET's landed here and shared their clearly advanced energy source technology with us? If you think economic times are bad now ...

No, we are in quarantine and our observers are waiting until we are "ready."

As a side note; I read a book back in the 80's about the many UFO sightings in and around Gulf Breeze, Florida. The book contained many many photos, some claimed to be Polaroid which were hard, if not impossible, to fake. In 1988 I went on a charter sailboat cruise off the Dalmatian coast of what was then Yugoslavia. The folks on one of the other boats were from Gulf Breeze and we had great discussions of their personal UFO sightings. One fellow had also taken many photos which he shared with the local news media and the military. The government sent someone to his home to interview him. They wanted the originals and negatives to, supposedly, analyze them. He declined to hand them over. Shortly afterwards his home was broken into and the only items taken were the photos and negatives. You can draw your own conclusions.